Prolific producer

Meng Jinghui's signature work, Rhinoceros in Love, has been a box office success with more than 1,000 performances to date. Photos by Jiang Dong / China Daily

The fifth edition of Beijing Fringe Festival, which opened on Sept 3 and runs till Sept 30, presents 63 plays from China and around the world, the largest ever.

It has taken much of his energy, and he has to spend one third of his time on the festival, from coming up with themes, to selecting works and talking to the participating young artists. And it's a job without pay.

Apart from existent categories, such as "new works", "annual focus" and "experimental Chinese operas", this year's festival presents a new category called "innovative works", which provides a platform for unusual forms, such as solo play and micro-play.

"Beijing Fringe Festival comes from a dream of mine for theater. When I was young, there was no platform for young and unknown directors like me to present our works, and we had to look for any kind of opportunity," Meng says. "Now I'm glad to see several talented young directors who have become known through the festival."

Wang Chong, Huang Ying and Shao Zehui are some of the young directors who have been well received at the festival, and become professional theater directors.

"Because of Beijing Fringe Festival, many young theater workers have opportunities to experiment with their ideas, and they will play a more active role in Chinese theater.

"Without these people, even if China builds 10,000 brand new theaters, they will be useless," Meng says.

Some of the young directors "produced" by Beijing Fringe Festival have also taken their works to international theater festivals, as Beijing Fringe Festival has established cooperative relationship with festivals, such as the Avignon Festival of France and Melbourne Festival of Australia.

Meng believes that compared to international theater, Chinese theater works are still too conservative because most directors are not as "desperate" as him when he was younger, when there wasn't a market yet and not as much to consider.

"Now there are more opportunities, but not many directors are prepared," he says.

"The theater market has been knocked open in China, which is good for theater development, but together with it, there are a lot of mixed elements."

Meng has directed nearly 40 theater works so far. But his favorite two are Soft, "a personal history of the mind", and To Live, "a man's quest for destiny", in his own words.

"It is estimated some 800,000 or 900,000 people have seen my works since the beginning of my career as a theater director," Meng says. "When I think that my works can impact so many people's lives, it's not bad at all."

Contact the writer at muqian@chinadaily.com.cn.